Criminal Ride
by Cookies2Cream
Summary: Max, Ella and Nudge Martinez are three sisters with the pretty usual life of high school, friends, parties, family and a well off home. Yet with everything they have why are they secretly known to the world as the infamous bank robbers known as Criminal Ride?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"$53 290!" Ella cheered after counting the money. "We did it," she said, starting to jump up and down on the bed, her dark hair flying everywhere. "All in one go. For the first time."  
"Wow, that's great," I smiled. "I guess we know who to thank for that," I said looking at Nudge who was spinning on my desk chair. It was her first time on the field with us, and it was her hacking skills that managed to get us more time.

_-Flashback-_

_"Hello, people of Red River Bank, we're robbing it today. But don't worry we won't take all your money...," Nudge's voice came through from the speakers. That girl, she just couldn't resist being quiet for ten minutes. "So we'll just take some money and be on our way... "  
_Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! _I thought. She was only supposed to inform the clients and workers that they have no chance at contacting the outside world._

_"...and I would tell you who we are, so you know we are honest thieves…"_

_Great. Just great._

"_Oh, right you don't know who I am. Well I'm Tracker Ride. You already know Elite Ride and Maximum Ride…"  
I'm. Going. To. Kill. Her. When. We. Get. Home. Just have to make sure mom doesn't find out._

_-Present- _

"Can I please, please, please, please, please come with you next time," Nudge pleaded, her dark chocolate eyes wide. I looked up from my spot on the floor and glared at her, not full force though, she was my sister after all. And my glares were intimidating.

"Have you forgotten what you did wrong? You disobeyed my orders. You almost told all those civilians our life story," I said sternly; I would've shouted if mom hadn't been home. She doesn't know of our illegal activities, but come on, what mother would agree to her daughters robbing banks.

Nudge stopped spinning . "But I only had to hack into their main system, shut down their communication, block off signals, open all locked safes, secure the premises - it's actually stupid of them to make everything under the control of computers because it so easy to lock the doors and the gates in the parking lot- and I had to inform them of the no communication and crack the code for the main safe." I know what you're thinking, she couldn't possibly have said all that in one go but she can, and even after living with her for twelve years, I'm still not used to it.

"I was bored afterwards…" she stopped after seeing my expression.

_-Flashback-_

_Ella threw me the next bag, only one more left to go. Through the open steel door I could see her hastily shovelling notes into the last back pack. _

_"Oh, I almost forgot you can't call the police, but you probably already knew that, since it's been a while but that would mean you weren't listen to me before because you would've been trying to call the police or your families…"Nudge's voice again came through the speakers._

_Argh! Now she remembers to tell them. I stood nervously in front of the safe, so far about four guards had attacked and were defeated. This left them currently passed out and bond in the Authorised Personal Only room. _

_-Present-_

"But you do have to thank me right, I did help, so yeah," she said, it was the shortest sentence she had said in a while… and that only happened when she was insecure. I had to come to the rescue and save my baby sister from this self-doubt. I got up and walked over to her.  
"Nudge, sweetie, you did great. True, you made some very high mistakes but we couldn't have done it without you." It was true. It was also true that I was used to the more stealthier options but I had no choice but to bring her along, it was a large bank after all.

She smiled so sweetly up at me that I almost couldn't believe she was a twelve-year-old-criminal-who-can-hack-top-security -databases-and-just-robbed-a-bank.

"So can I come next time?" she asked.

"I'll think about it." She seemed satisfied with the answer.

"So did you kill anyone? I hope not but if you like just beat 'em up, then that's cool and I guess necessary. So how many? Last time you took out about ten guys."

_-Flashback-_

_"Hurry up, I hear footsteps," I called to Ella. "I'm almost done, just hold 'em off for a few more minutes," she called back._

"_Freeze. Do not move," a security guard was in front of me holding a gun out in front of him. I placed my hands in the air and slide to my knees. The guard advanced towards me cautiously; when he was close enough. I moved my body around and swung my foot at him, knocking him off balanced. As he hit the floor I pried his gun from his hands. "Hands behind your head, any funny business and you forgot who you are," I said. Okay it sounded strange, but I had recently come up with a reputation of causing people amnesia. He did as he was told. I walked behind him and knocked him out with the back of the gun. _

_Another one to tie up. I guess I'll need to borrow more duct tape._

_-Present-_

"Only five," I smiled.

"Max! Ella! Nudge! Come down. Our company will be here soon."

"Comin'!" we said together.

"Well," I announced to my sisters. "It's time to go and act like normal teenager girls." They both smiled, unable to hide the mischievous looks. "We will resume this meeting tomorrow, Criminal Ride," I said looking at both Ella and Nudge.

As we descended the stairs I couldn't help but think about tomorrow. Sure yesterday's events were worrying, but we were always cautious and the rush helped keep me level headed. I have to admit it was fun too but it always made me nervous, once we got the money because that meant the next step.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Nudge was drinking my chocolate milk again. I had no choice but to label the bottle with markings so that I would know how much milk I had left. It was level 5 before but now it was level 3. I was so annoyed I drank Nudge's strawberry milk as revenge. After that Nudge moved onto the next course: Ella's waffles. Oh well, as long as it's not mine heheheheheh.

"Max"

"Max wake up," a voice said, slightly shaking me. "Wha's oin' on?" I mumbled, sitting up rubbing the sleep from my eyes. I noticed the sound of waves and soft sand beneath me. "You were talking in your sleep, something about chocolate milk and Ella's waffles-" I placed my hand over her mouth before she could continue, I was too sleepy to face The Nudge Channel. _Why can't I sleep?_

"BECAUSE I'LL EAT YOUR LUNCH," Ratchet yelled. _Did I say that out loud?_ "AND IGGY MADE IT." Iggy. Made. Lunch.

In two seconds flat I was by the picnic basket. "Someone said Iggy made lunch?" I asked. Ella and Nudge rolled their eyes.

The six of us were at the beach. Yesterday at dinner Mom suggested we do something together before school starts tomorrow. Of course that doesn't give us much time to prepare for this afternoon but we must keep up the act.

Iggy, Fang and Ratchet happen to be our closest friends, even our parents are friends. Iggy and Fang are my age and look the complete opposite of each other. Iggy has pale skin, ice blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair while Fang has dark hair and eyes and olive skin. Ratchet is Fang's half brother; he has the dark hair but Caucasian skin.

"So what are we going to do?" Ratchet asked. Luckily Nudge's mouth was in the middle of a bite with a sandwich, that was too large for her, to talk. "What about Truth or Dare? We haven't played that in ages-" Ella suggested but was cut off by Iggy who was staring intently at his phone.

"Hey! That Criminal Ride group, they got a new member."  
"How do you know?" Ella asked.  
"There's a video on the internet." I almost choked as Iggy said those words. The five of us crowded around him.  
_"Maximum and Elite Ride, you are under arrested," a police officer exclaimed as the girls walked out the back exit of a building, several bags were hung over their shoulders.  
"So unoriginal," Maximum sighed.  
"You don't think we would be caught out this easily do you?" Elite asked.  
Silence among the seven policemen.  
They walked slowly towards them. "Give yourselves in and everything will be a lot easier."  
"Give in... never!" Maximum exclaimed.  
"You don't have much choice… two girls against all of us. You won't stand a chance," the police officer said.  
"Who said there was only two of us."  
In the background someone dropped down onto the police car, instantly Maximum and Elite sunk into the shadows. Whoever dropped down delivered a round house kick to the police officer who had been talking, then jumped from each police car and somersaulted over the gate, disappearing into darkness. _

"Woah! That's awesome," Nudge exclaimed, keeping up the act about the whole thing being cool like every other teenager in Arizona seems to think so. Of course the others didn't know that it was us in the video. "Yeah apparently the third one's name is Tracker Ride." Iggy suddenly stopped.

"I wonder if their hiring more people. They sure could use some help from the Igster." Ratchet laughed. "Yeah what could you possibly do?" Iggy sat up tall, and with a face full of pride he immediately started listing off his talents. "Well for one I am the master of all things fireworks, they could use some grand exists." Yeah as if that wouldn't give away the whole stay in the shadows, keep on the down low act. "Not to mention hotwiring cars for any speed chases." For leading the authorities right into our home base, sure. "And not to mention my speciality of bombs." Of course let's just kill the hostages shall we. "I can also crack safes, for the old fashioned safes." That would actually come in handy, some of the banks still kept safe's like those but Nudge can only hack into the ones connected to computers.

"Well if we're done with boasting, I got a great prank planned. And… it has to do with Lissa," I said with my best evil grin. "Well if it has to do with Lissa, I'm in," Iggy said with his own evil grin. "Excellent," I stated, drumming my fingers against each other just like Mr Burns from Simpsons.

Lissa and her friends were lying on beach towels baking their bodies, not too far from us.

"Lissa!" Iggy yelled, running up to the red headed bimbo. "You have to help me, Nudge is drowning," he pointed out to sea where Nudge was flapping around in the water. "I'm suffering from heat stroke, only you can save her," he said before pretending to faint. Oh, Iggy the ever dramatic one.

Lissa just lay there on her beach towel getting a tan as if nothing had happened. Her "friends" were around her, getting their own tans. "Eww. You expect me… to go into salty, seaweedy water… which fish use as a toilet," she said eventually.

Iggy was still sprawled over the sand, with his body occasionally twitching. He really looked ill but fortunately the life guards were on the other side of the beach. I could see the three sexist guards from where I was standing; they were just flirting and eyeing girls.

"Nice to see her vocabulary improving," I said to Ratchet, who was filming the whole thing.

Ella then walked up to Lissa. In a voice full of desperation she started pleading. "Please, she'll drown if you don't do anything."  
"Urgh! Do something yourself," Lissa's shrill voice retorted.  
"But you're a better swimmer then anyone here."  
"Everyone knows that."

It wasn't working. I looked at the sea, Nudge was still flapping around but she was going to get tired soon. "Looks like plan B must take place," Ratchet announced. I nodded and motioned for Fang to go.

"Lissa. Help her," Fang said. Lissa jumped to her feet. "Well if you say so, Fang I'll help her." She stepped over Iggy twitching body and started making her way to the water. Her friends all started fangirling over Fang, he turned to us mouthing 'help me'. Hah! This was payback for throwing me in the pool, to wake me up in the morning.

Lissa was cautiously making her way through the water. I waited until she was at waist length then played my part. "Ew… ew… ew, ew, ew, ew. Ew. EW. EW!" she started screaming the deeper she went. "No!" I yelled, making Lissa, her cronies aka friends, Ella, Fang, Iggy who had just gotten up and some other teenagers around us turn to look at me. "She already gone," I pointed to where Nudge had been. "WHAT?! No," Iggy wailed and dramatically fell once again.

I glared at Lissa; she was terrified of my glared. "You killed my sister. Now you must pay," I said slowly advancing towards her. Next thing there was a wall of water splashing down on Lissa. She shrieked.

A pile of seaweed emerged from the water. "Yooooou… let me droooownn. Yooooou… must faaaace… the consquenccccccce," a haunting but loud voice stated. Lissa's eyes were wide with fear, she started to step back. The pile outstretched two hands and advanced towards hers. Another shriek – louder this time. Then she was off, racing across the beach. Hastily picking up of things, then running off again with them clutched to her chest. Her cronies watched in horror as their leader ran screaming across the beach with a pile of seaweed not far behind.

The whole beach had stopped just to watched the red-headed wonder.

Ella, Fang, Iggy (who had woken for the show) and I started to slowly disappear among the rocks. Once we were safe from view and far enough not to be heard, we burst out laughing. "Another one to add to Youtube."

* * *

**A/N: Just to let you know that my friend wrote Max's dream.**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

_Jeb Batchelder _

_A loving husband and father._

I didn't know how long I had been kneeling in front of the tomb stone, or how long it had been since Mom, Ella and Nudge had gone home, but I didn't care. The pain in my knees was helping me, it was better then an emotional breakdown right now. I wasn't good with emotions, physical pain I was great at dealing with but emotions I just couldn't handle. And this was a very emotional event.

Fives years ago today my dad died. He went to work and never came back, the next time we saw him he was in a coffin pale and stationary. I was ten at the time, Ella was nine and Nudge was seven.

We were all very close to our dad, even Nudge who was adopted. He was the best, even if his work took him away for several months at times he would always make it up to us. He was the one who took us to beach, to theme parks, planned vacations and played sports with us. He loved us all the same, he didn't even think of Nudge as adopted. He was truly the best dad.

"H-hi dad," I stuttered, finally speaking. "I hope your well, wherever you are…" Hot tears were starting to build in my eyes but I blinked them back, I didn't want an annual visit to turn into a sobbing fest. "We freed another one today…"

I looked guiltily back at my hands. "I know that you don't approve of our activities but it's helping, and we're are always careful," I suddenly realized how ridiculous that sounded. "Well as safe as we can be… it was a clean exchange, like always, but I was still worried earlier. Mom always said I was overly paranoid."

_-Flashback-_

_"Okay Elite he's gone, the path's clear," I said into the ear and mouth piece. From the roof I could see everything including our contact pick up the stolen money. Our drop off was at the cliché alley between two abandoned buildings, one of which I was currently on watch out on. _

_Ella approached the small dog crate, the lock was simple and easily undone. She peered inside. " It's okay…" I heard her soft voice over the mouth and ear piece but she wasn't talking to me. "I'm here to help…" Reluctantly a boy, barely three years old crawled out of the crate and took Ella's outstretched hands. His figure was thin, frail and tiny, and his light brown hair was in a tangled mess. The hospital gown which clung to him was caked in dirt, with occasional rips. _

_-Present-_

"It was a little boy this time dad. He was so young... so broken. Ella took him to the hospital, undetected of course, she's always been good with stealth and the hospital has minimal security. I hope he's okay though," I stopped talking, I didn't want to ramble on like Nudge earlier but that did remind me. "Nudge said she was going to pray tonight, that a good family adopts him and loves him not matter what."

My eyes shifted from my hands to the tomb stone, I stared at it imagining that I was looking at my dad and that he was sitting in front of me. "I know you would've like a son even though you insisted you didn't. I still remember the story the you told me… When Mom was pregnant you thought you were going to have a son and you wanted to name him Max. Afterwards you got me instead but you still wanted my name to be Max. You said it was short for Maximum because I was the best," I smiled at that memory. The nights where my dad used to still tuck me into bed, saying _'always remember don't let anyone ever bring you down… your name is Maximum for a reason'. _Luckily it didn't say that on my birth certificate otherwise everyone would obviously know that I'm Maximum ride.

How many other people would even have that name?

"Well if you want to hear about our normal lives then my sisters and I went with Fang, Iggy and Ratchet to the beach today. You should've seen Lissa's face when Nudge came out of the water wearing a lump of seaweed," I couldn't help the smile that crawled onto my face.

"It was a productive day I'd say, well for a Sunday at least. Went to the beach, then saved a kid from growing up in a laboratory full of sadistic scientists and walked Magnolia," I sighed, "And tomorrow's school."

I stood up, the skin on my knees had grains of dirt stuck to it from kneeling for so long, and my legs took a while to maintain my balance. I gave one last look to the grave stone.

"I should go now. Thanks for listening… I miss you dad."

I turned and walked towards the car parked outside the graveyard, Mom had dropped off Ella and Nudge and came back to pick me up.

_-Flashback-_

_"What's with the note Ella?" I asked. We were back from the exchange and just hanging out in Ella's room. She had a pristine while paper in her hand. "Our contact left it behind. It's a note from him, it says 'I managed to retrieve some information from lab, I'll leave it during our next exchange. I also found out that this genetic engineering lab is known as 'the School'.'_

* * *

**A/N: This is a filler chapter. Even though the reason why they steal the money is revealed there's still a lot more to come...  
Thanks for all your reviews. :-D**


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